Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Time with Wilddogs

An inquisitive dog investigates my camera from a few centimetres away
 Its been more that two years since I first met up with the Wilddogs of Northern Kenya and whenever I find myself in the area I make an effort to spend as much time with them as possible. Although Africa's second most endangered carnivore's future always seems to balance on a knife's edge the population seems to be doing well. Highlights included witnessing several kills, packs fighting (impossible to photograph) and the first sight of a new litter. So here are a few images from their lives.
The Drama of the action packed hunts proved very difficult to communicate effectively on a photograph yet this one I feel does it some jsutice

Allways out on a hunt, a dropped cap makes for excellent practice.

Portrait

Before setting off on his afternoon hunt, a young male gives me an inquisitive glance. 
The dimunitive Dik dik forms around 70% of the Wilddogs prey, like this one in Samburu.

They kept their dens out of sight amongst the granite boulders of the area and only at around 8 weeks did we manage to see and photograph the pups for the first time.